However, his slugging percentage has risen to a career high (.526), excepting his 50-game debut at the end of ’17. 226 batting average.Īs the slugger’s walks and strikeouts have both dropped, his walk to strikeout ratio has wobbled (1 to 1.49 in ’19 1 to 2.30 this year). This is likely related to his barrel rate this season – 16.9 percent – finally, a figure higher than in his torrid 50 opening games (13.5).įor comparison’s sake, Mike Trout’s career barrel rate is 15.1 percent (18.4 for the current season).Īlso, Hoskins has finally left behind his reluctance to swing at less than perfect pitches, a tendency resulting in 116 walks in ’19, but a. A moderately deep dive into the figures Hoskins has posted thus far, however, yields some encouraging signs.įirst, this season, whatever his final home run and RBI totals, Rhys Hoskins seems definitely headed for a career high in doubles, which is now 38 (’18). I suppose we could count big headlines, but that seems silly, and MLB stopped counting game-winning RBI years ago.
His doubles average per 162 games – 37 as well – is also higher than all but one of his seasonal figures. That isn’t all a matter of the COVID season either. So, what do the Phillies have in Hoskins? He’s arbitration eligible after this year, in which he is making $4.8 million.įirst and foremost, they have a player with an odd stat for a player who has basically been an everyday cog for five seasons – Hoskins’ average home run figure for 162 games – 37 – is higher than any seasonal home run total he has yet posted. Injuries haven’t helped his productivity either, but in that time, the big first sacker has also emerged as perhaps the only vocal leader in the Phillies clubhouse besides Bryce Harper (who actually seems to be trying too hard in that regard sometimes). Over the next 3-plus seasons that MLB has contested in the next four years, Rhys Hoskins has had 13 more homerless streaks of at least 10 games. He hit no dingers in his last 16 games in that campaign. Hoskins wowed the world, of course, in his short debut in 2017, hitting 18 homers in his first 34 games, but it’s what happened next that suggested something the next few years would bear out about the 6-foot-4 bomber – he is streaky. He isn’t the “white Barry Bonds,” as some called him soon after he broke into the Phillies lineup, but he appears to be something like a valuable power hitter in his fifth season. This was not at all an assured thing – the two coming weeks would likely tell – but even if the Phillies fall short of the postseason, or even a winning season, Rhys Hoskins appears to be edging towards his actual MLB potential for the long run. If Hoskins could hit a bit like he did in the series-winning game with the Padres for several weeks, maybe, just maybe….